B&B @ The Redwoods Rotorua

Well we finally made it to Auckland after a mammoth plane journey - 7 hours to Dubai, 3 hours in Dubai airport, 13.5 hours to Melbourne, 1 hour in Melbourne airport then 3 hours on to New Zealand. Managed to get some extra legroom on the Dubai-Melbourne leg which made my day, could actually stretch my legs out for once. Emirates are really good, entertainment is great with looooads of films and tv shows to choose from.

Once we got to Auckland we ...

... touristy branch and establish attractions to show traditional culture and lifestyle in return for a small or bigger donation




A huge posh hotel was being built, the area quickly used to its wealthy tourists and their money. On June 6, 1886 the eruption of Mt Tarawera ended it all by destroying the gorgeous terraces – only paintings and early black and white photographs can be viewed ...

... a few strange looks from passer-by’s as we were parked in a residential neighbourhood outside someone’s house! On the way to Ngongotaha we stopped off in Te Puke - kiwi capital - and visited Kiwi 360. We climbed up a giant kiwi structure and bought a few souvenirs from the shop then got back on the road.

... got thrown out of the boat so I had to fish him in. It was kind of awesome because as the boat hit the bottom of the water it was so close to flipping, it was really cool that we managed to hold on. After battling some more rapids we made it to the end alive. Hell yeah!!! In the evening not much happened.

Day 34

Today everyone did there own thing. I went ...

... for tourists - and as a result rather than heading straight for our destination we had a couple of stops on the way. Stop one was in Auckland, at the top of the inactive volcano Mount Eden for a nice view back out over the city. Stop two at Waitomo was to prove even more interesting - after some persuasive sales technique on the bus we signed up to do 'black water rafting' in the glow worm caves. Expecting a gentle drift through some caves looking up at the ...

... after dinner to one of the area geysers, which erupts both during the day and night. We were able to see the evening eruption enhanced by the park's lighting, it was beautiful. The next morning my itinerary started off with another pick up from my motel, destined for several of the other natural wonders of the area. First stop was the bubbling mud pools. The sun had not burned off all of the morning fog, so all I could think of during this leg was that it looked like Yoda's forest ...

We left Orchard House fairly early for a three and a half hour drive to Rotorua on a tortuous bendy road. Jayne complained that, "as usual", she had to drive the difficult bendy bit with lots of mountains and up one side and down the other. We stopped off at Waihi which is an old gold mining town - very reminiscent of a wild west film set. We had lunch in an empty pub and played pool on a circular pool ...

... work hatching kiwi chicks and then introducing them into the wild when they are about six months old and large enough to fend for themselves. But dogs, possums and stoats (a ferret like creature) are still killing them at an amazing rate so for the time being these strange and fascinating birds are still endangered. We saw a newborn chick as part of the tour and you got a real sense of how committed the employees are to the cause. John: Rotorua is a heavily ...

... my arms right out. At this point we were horizontal, and for me, that was the point when I opened my eyes. I'd already decided that I didn't want to actually see what was happening when we were all tumbing over and over in mid-air in freefall - if I was going to die, then i didn't want to see it coming! And it all went according to plan, as far as I know anyway. Eric pulled the parachute (until then we'd been plummeting towards the ground at 200 km/h), we ...

... t have glow worms, but are apparently still worthy of some sensational adjectives in their potted descriptions!

We decided to go for the basic walking tour which was NZ$35 (about 13 quid), as we didn't have enough time for anything more fancy.

Luckily the guides decided to keep the lairy Chinese tour back from the main group, so we joined our ...